FF - TGIF - MIA

I was wondering how many acronyms I could put in the title. Not really, but it struck me as funny - there's one, two, three...ha!

OK, sorry, I am quite easily amused.

TGIF - Its Friday, and I should probably be cheerier, but for some reason I just feel a bit blah. I'm tired and wish I could go home and climb in bed and pull a blanket up to my chin and snuggle down with my eyes closed drifting off into a deep sleep. I adore naps and don't get to enjoy them nearly often enough. But 'TGIF' anyway! Slap a smile on and call it good. And it will be. :)

MIA - yea, I've been a little MIA here on blogland lately. Just haven't been inspired to write or felt like I had anything worthwhile to contribute to the blogsphere. Of course, I've been reading everyone else and I've commented here and there, so its not like I've been TOTALLY gone. I've just been all up in my head.

So what's going on up there? Oh heavens, a real mish-mosh of stuff. But primarily I've been tangled up contemplating things such as - how much time I spend online, is it really productive (or worthwhile), where I should focus efforts, how do I streamline, am I spread too thin (ok, so that's a rhetorical question), am I just too damn busy at this point in my life to try to contemplate turning my hobby into a business, should I be working on my website, and then things like - how do I teach my son about compassion in a tangible way, what about that guy on the corner, am I making a difference, am I screwing up my son (that one came out of nowhere this week, I really don't know what the hell is going on in my brian lately), is it too much, it is too little, why can't I make myself do the things I know I should, could I simplify, what is the meaning of life (no, not really - just thought I'd throw that one in there).

okaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. Now that I've purged.

On to better things.

FF- Its that day. Time for a favorite.

My favorite this week has GOT to be my new little polisher.

It was a steal for under 70 bucks.

And I lurrrrrrrrrrv it.

It is certainly not without its down sides - such as the freakin' mess. And I need to secure it to the benchtop....its very lightweight and so it moves around. But, I have never worked with a polishing unit before, EVER. So its really really made a big impression on me - I think that's all I've done this week - almost. Just polish stuff. I've dug out old pieces which haven't seen the light of day in so long - and I've polished them and its like they have new life breathed into them! For me, this has been one of those things that you just don't know you're missing until you get one. Then ya' wonder why you didn't do it long ago. Those little buffs on the flexshaft just never did much for me - although I just received some new ones and they are working pretty good - its still not the same as the bench top polisher. And no more running the damn screw into a piece and yelling @!&%! One of these days I'll upgrade to this little guy's big brother, but for now this little guy is perfect for me. I have it in a box with some strategic cut outs and plastic wrap over it and vent holes cut in and that helps with the mess, but I really need a small exhaust of some sort to vent the garbage.

And I have new news.

I have a little secret. Something I've kept close to the vest.

I was made aware of an artist who was liquidating her studio. So I made some purchases. I normally attend a gem show the first weekend in July - always over July 4th weekend - and I drop a fair bit of money on gems and HillTribes and/or sterling beads/spacers, its my big yearly purchase of stones. I made the decision to forgo that and instead invest in some items from this liquidation sale. I purcahsed ALL of her faceted gemstones (*gulp* that was a big ticket item), a AF-99 kiln (YAY!), some enamelling supplies, some sterling chains and a few other misc items.

I set the kiln up right away and had the pleasure of using it already twice to test fire some enamels. There they are. Cute huh? Just kind of messing around seeing what the colors look like. Some of you know that I bought a trinket kiln some time ago for granulation and at that time I also purchased some enamels, "just in case" and just to tinker with. That defines me so well, doesn't it? FOREVER tinkering....with something new. Will I ever grow up and figure out what to make for heaven's sake? Will I ever have a 'signature style' or piece? (refer back to that 'focus' question above)

Believe it or not, the stones have just been sitting, I've hardly had a chance to look at them. Until last night. I finally began pulling some out and thinking about what to do with them. I used two of them last night - one as an accent on one of those pods I made a few weeks back. And one in a new ring. The stones aren't set yet - I need to do a final clean up of the solder areas, hope to pop the stones in tonight. But wow - what stones. They are better grade than I probably would have bought. Since I don't sell that much yet, I purchase mostly affordable mid-grade stones. These are very high grade stones. yay!

We have a swim meet tomorrow morning - but I hope to get some bench time later in the day. So hopefully I will have new pics to show and some new items in my Etsy shop - or my website, depending on if I get time to work on that - the entire website needs updating. So much to do, so little time...........

Janice